I had a pair of sweet surprises yesterday. I opened up a letter from Allstate insurance that stated they overcharged me for insurance on my old Honda Element and sent me a refund check. The amount was minuscule (the money went right into the cash fund in my bug out bag), but hey — free money is free money — and I would have never been none the wiser about the overcharge. Granted, it would have been nice to have never been overcharged at all, but at least Allstate fessed up.

The more pleasant surprise was a letter from the company that has my current Mazda3SPEED auto loan. They reduced my APR by 0.7% for no apparent reason. Why would a bank do that? Preemptive strike against me trying to switch lenders in the future? Who knows, but I appreciated it. The difference amounts to a free car payment. Not bad. 🙂